Yoga Sutras of Patanjali English (Page 8)

Shasana means rules someone imposes on you. Anushasana is the rule you impose upon yourself. Do you see the difference? Now, why is yoga called a discipline? Where is the need for discipline? When does the need for discipline arise?

When you are thirsty and want to drink water, you do not say “Oh! This is a rule, I must drink water”. When you are hungry, you just eat. When it comes to the question of enjoying oneself, no discipline is necessary.

Yoga is the act of restraining or freeing the mind from the clutches of its modulations.

- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #2

There are five types of modulations of the mind:
Wanting proof for everything
Lack of comprehension
Imagination
Sleep
Memory

All through the day, your mind is in one of these modulations. But, if there are those moments when you are not sleeping, not remembering old things, not imagining, or looking for proof, then that moment yoga has happened.

At that moment, what is happening? You are just by yourself in the journey of your own Self, which is the source of joy, the source of love, the source of peace and knowledge.

There are two types of thinking — occidental and oriental. In the oriental way of thinking, it said that there is an ultimate and in the ultimate everything happens. In the occidental way of thinking, you are always looking for an ultimate. In either of the approaches, yoga is what happens when you are in the moment so totally at ease and peace.

This book is the basis of the age old, classical Yoga. It describes this whole science in an astonishing brief way: there are only 195 Sutra’s or verses. Up until now the translations and interpretations were incomplete or simply wrong. With the help of his soul Shri Yogacharya Ajita explains all Sutra’s for the first time clearly. You feel as if you are in his class room. You are carried away by his enthusiasm. His hands on approach let your Yoga practice make a leap forward. You quickly understand the enormous importance of Yoga in our overheated world.

2. Yogas Citta-Vrtti-Nirodhah

Yoga is the inhibition of the modifications of the mind

The word “Nirodhah” means, “to bring under control”.

Another way to interpret this word is “to put a halt to it” or “to shut off”. But in this case it is not to put a halt to it or to shut it off. If you would shut it off you would be finished. It simply cannot be shut off, because energy is a dynamic phenomenon. “The modifications of the mind” – a translation for Vritti. But the Vritti’s have arisen from the Samskara’s remember? And Samskara’s are at the level of Citta. What we see here is a dynamic in the Sutra that shows that the process of control goes from the causal to the mental, and from the mental to the causal. Vritti’s belong to Manas. While the Samskara’s occur in Citta. This means that Citta and Vritti actually do not belong together. However, it is a nice trick to tell the story more quickly: “Yoga is the inhibition (bringing under control or slowing down) of the Vritti’s in us up until the level of Citta, where there are still Samskara’s”. This means then that the control goes up until the Samskara’s in Citta. Even more than that: that you will even be able to gain control over the consciousness, to such an extent that you will remain in Citta itself.

This is a fantastic Sutra: not more than 4 words, but still a complete program.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - A Fresh Translation with Video Commentary by William Gillies.

( Earth's Atmosphere! William is a down to earth speaker with a sense of humour, and very informative. You might be surprised. )

1. Now, without hesitation, roar towards realization!
2. Enlightenment practice is when there is no sucking into the vortices of the mind/heart.
3. Then there is abiding in pure experiencing.
4. Otherwise there is identification with mental/emotional perturbations.
5. The mental emotional perturbations are a five-storied edifice. They can be painful or not.
6. They are cognition, misapprehension, imagination, sleep and memory.
7. Cognition (consensus reality) is based on perception, inference and culture.
8. There is misapprehension of the fact not based on the evidence.
9. This is fuelled by imagination and insubstantial arguments.

In the fall of 2004, a group of yoga-practitioners in San Luis Obispo, California, hosted a series of lectures on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra delivered by Dr. Howard J. Resnick (Srila Hridayananda Das Goswami Acharyadeva). The course was based on his own translations from the original Sanskrit text to English, explaining the meaning of each in a straightforward, practical, and easily assimilated manner.

Possessing a deep grasp and practical experience of the concepts and practices presented by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, his presentation is remarkably clear and simple, demystifying the text and uncovering its relevance to all those interested in becoming better persons.